


Like a Poem Sappho Never Wrote

by Glinda



Series: Sappho Quotes Prompt Table [3]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Academia, F/F, Female Friendship, Friends to Lovers, Heartbreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 20:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7771186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erin & Abby through the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Release Me From Care

**Author's Note:**

> I sat down this afternoon, intending to write a few drabbles for the Sappho challenge and well...one of them is only 111 words, but otherwise...apparently I have too many feelings about the girls to keep the stories in line. So instead have four little sort of interlinked ficlets about Erin & Abby and epic love.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When they're together Erin isn't afraid of anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #3 ...among mortal women, know this

Erin only ever wanted to be normal. Not that she ever thought about it like that, before a ghost started showing up at the end of her bed. Before therapy. Before she was Ghost Girl.

Her parents were utterly normal and expected the same of her. They’d be pleased if she excelled a little, academically or on the sports field, but otherwise, they would be quite content for her be perfectly average. Do well enough in school to get into a decent school, get a good job, meet a nice boy, buy a nice house in a town like this one, give them a grand child or two. It never occurred to Erin to want anything other than that until it suddenly seemed out reach.

Nowhere on that timeline were paranormal encounters, years of therapy before she was even in high school and becoming a social pariah.

Erin doesn’t understand why they don’t quite approve of Abby. Wonderful, warm, loyal Abby, who believes her and defends her. The new girl who made herself an outcast to stay by Erin’s side. She revels in the warm chaos of Abby’s home, in the welcome she always finds there. (They don’t believe her, Erin can tell, but they love Abby enough to never say so in front of Erin.) Abby, in whose company she learns to reclaim her experience, to be fascinated by instead of fearful of ghosts. Her only friend.

Erin never wanted to be different, to be strange, but with Abby by her side it doesn’t seem so bad. With Abby’s hand in hers she feels ten feet tall and twice as brave. They could face down any challenge, any ghost, just as long as they were together.

With Abby by her side Erin can’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.


	2. Let Down Your Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She didn't realise that severing one of the threads that bound them would cause the whole to unravel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> # 8 their heart grew cold

The quiet is the worst part.

When Erin took this job she knew she’d have to make sacrifices. Give up pet projects. She was prepared for that. (Nothing could have prepared her for this.) She just hadn’t realised how intertwined her and Abby’s lives had become. (Best friend. Partner. Colleague. Lover. Soul-mate.) She’d forgotten how quiet and small her life was before Abby came along.

The job is prestigious. Her parents are so proud of her. Her office is quiet and perfectly neat and tidy. It’s everything she ever wanted.

And when she gets tenure it’ll be worth everything (everyone) she had to sacrifice to get here. (It has to be.)


	3. But Me You Have Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abby thinks she does a good job of pretending that her heart isn’t breaking a little more sitting there unnoticed in the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #14 but me you have forgotten

She doesn’t explain why she can’t miss this particular talk, at this particular conference. Dr E. Gilbert could be anyone to her travelling companion. Particle physics is close enough to what they do to be interesting to them both. Mostly it’s just a relief to be in the company of someone who doesn’t know. Who won’t be watching Abby constantly to see her reaction – to revel in it - to seeing Erin again.

It’s a good talk, the paper is interesting if unadventurous – Abby knows better than anyone the leaps of deduction and utter brilliance of which Erin is capable – and Erin looks well. And her eyes don’t even rest a moment on Abby as she looks out over the small crowd. (She’s looking at carefully pre-arranged points in the crowd, a trick for better engaging her audience, she isn’t scanning the crowd for anyone’s face, let alone Abby’s.) Abby thinks she does a good job of pretending that her heart isn’t breaking a little more sitting there unnoticed in the hall.

“Good talk,” observes Abby’s new lab partner, “might have some interesting thoughts on our research if she’s open-minded enough.”

Abby nearly chokes on her water. They’ve only been working together a few months and while Holtzmann has read large swathes of the manuscript of the book she and Erin wrote together she doesn’t know the whole story yet. It’s too raw still.

“No.” She assures Holtzmann, “Dr Gilbert has made it quite clear that she has no interest whatsoever in my research. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Alright,” agrees Holtzmann, voice utterly neutral. Abby thinks for a moment that she’s got away with that little outburst until she feels Holtzmann sling an arm around her shoulder companionably. “So, instead of that. How about we blow this popsicle stand, because you clearly need a drink – I’m buying – and you’re going to tell me exactly what that prissy little stuffed shirt did – personally or professionally - to break your heart.”

Holtzmann’s tone is deceptively light when she speaks, but her eyes when they meet Abby’s are fierce and the set of her jaw determined. Abby isn’t sure what she’s done to earn such fierce loyalty from Holtzmann. Her observations have suggested that Holtzmann doesn’t have friends among their colleagues, leading her to presume that Holtzmann’s just one of those academics who prefer to keep their academic and personal lives separate. Right now, though, Abby is beginning to suspect that she’s utterly misread her colleague. That Holtzmann might be just as much in need of a friend to be loyal to, as Abby needs a loyal friend. She leans into the friendly embrace.

“As long as we go somewhere away from here, because I think if I tell you you’re going to want to punch her – “ Holtzmann nods her agreement “ – and if I’ve had as much to drink as I’ll need to to tell you everything, I’ll be drunk enough to let you so…”

“Somewhere else it is.”


	4. A Delicate Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This thing between them is fragile, yet holding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #12 may you sleep on the breast of your delicate friend

Abby isn’t sure what woke her, but she finds her eyes opening nonetheless. Under heavy lids she sees Holtz stepping back from where she’d been draping a blanket over her. She knows from experience that the two of them are so used to each other’s presence, to finding each other asleep in odd places that that cannot have been what woke her.

“Go back to sleep, both of you,” Holtz mutters as she wanders off to her own lab, exasperation and affection colouring her voice.

Abby realises then what woke her. Erin is asleep, curled beside her on the couch and Abby has been using her shoulder – well it was her shoulder when they fell asleep, realistically it is now mostly her left breast - as a pillow. Erin is in fact currently only pretending to be asleep. The change in Erin’s breathing must have been what had woken Abby herself. While Abby can sleep through Holtz’s quiet puttering, Erin isn’t yet accustomed to those sounds as familiar and comforting.

There are dozens of things that Abby could say to comfort her oldest friend, but this fragile newly repaired thing between them makes her second-guess how they might be taken. Instead she presses a kiss onto Erin’s shoulder before resettling onto her chest. Erin shifts as though in sleep, nuzzling her face into Abby’s hair and pressing a kiss of her own there.

“Erin..?” Abby asks softly, not sure what to say, if reassurance will comfort her or spook her at this point.

“Shh…” Erin whispers back, “sleeping.”

Abby lets out a small puff of laughter and leaves it be. Allowing the warmth and contentment to wash over her again, she drifts back to sleep as Erin’s breathing evens out once more under her cheek. It’ll be morning soon enough.


End file.
